Mirror, Handheld
by Sam Rasnake
As far as the writing goes, I'm a fleck of sandstone beside a granite wall, one boot print on a forest floor, a goat with no mountain. Don't bring me your tired, your hungry—I've nothing written that could possibly keep them from drowning. What I have to offer would be heavy chains across their shoulders, cinder blocks tied to ankles, a slow and deep river of mud. My silence is their survival.
My best advice for you is to say nothing, to bide your time—and since I'm one of those who must fill nothing with something, as in the last word—wait for me to use my own against me, to cut myself to ribbons, curled and pinned to a mat for display, one cabinet drawer among a sea of cabinets—a wash of syllables over bones and flesh—the tiniest of pools under starless skies.
One hundred years from now—one minute from now would be no different. The world wobbles into its terrible beauty: the making by taking away.
I bring no gifts, no balance, no light.
If only—and no. I can't look.
My best advice for you is to say nothing, to bide your time—and since I'm one of those who must fill nothing with something, as in the last word—wait for me to use my own against me, to cut myself to ribbons, curled and pinned to a mat for display, one cabinet drawer among a sea of cabinets—a wash of syllables over bones and flesh—the tiniest of pools under starless skies.
One hundred years from now—one minute from now would be no different. The world wobbles into its terrible beauty: the making by taking away.
I bring no gifts, no balance, no light.
If only—and no. I can't look.
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Author's Note
Words, of course, can only carry us so far. "No ideas but in things." WCW
Thanks to Ellen Parker & Dennis Mahagin for including this hybrid piece in the Fall / Winter 2020 issue of FRiGG.
Other stories by Sam Rasnake
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Having viewed a dozen or a score of World Science Festival videos of late dedicated to cosmology, astrophysics, astronomy, and physics, the "unsaying" that can yield both silence and apophatic "assertion" makes cosmic sense: "making by taking away" says it.
Outstanding concise, pared work, with its own explosive force.
So sure of itself. Love this.
Evocative of something that feels so familiar and true. *
A lifeline for those drowning in discourse.
Serious.
*****
"a wash of syllables over bones and flesh". Beautiful line.
Required reading for anyone who writes *
Stunning !!
" Don't bring me your tired, your hungry—I've nothing written that could possibly keep them from drowning. "
Well done, my friend.
I'm with what Foster says.*
Loved this in FRiGG
Love it here. *
Spectacular, Sam!
*
*, Sam. Your words found me here. Amazing imagery.